Perez Counts Blue Jays Out

Dodger pitcher Odalis Perez was tossed out of the Toronto clubhouse during a friendly visit Tuesday. He wouldn’t have minded throwing it back in the Blue Jays’ faces by tossing a shutout Thursday.

Perez won the game, but he lost his shutout bid in the sixth inning because of a mental gaffe by right fielder Shawn Green that allowed the only Blue Jay run to score in a 2-1 Dodger victory in front of 24,977 at Dodger Stadium.

In what has become a Dodger routine, Eric Gagne pitched the ninth for his major league-leading 25th save--although he did let the potential tying run reach base when Carlos Delgado singled.

Gagne ended the game by getting a strikeout and a double play, and the Dodgers remained a game behind Arizona in the National League West.

What happened in the sixth inning was far from routine.

With one out and runners on first and second, Green caught Tom Wilson’s fly ball, but kept jogging with his back to the field, clearly thinking it was the third out.

As astonished onlookers watched, the Blue Jays’ Raul Mondesi tagged up and scored all the way from second base on what officially became a sacrifice fly for Wilson.

“He came to me and told me, ‘My bad, I thought there were three outs,’ ” Perez said after Green’s mistake. “I’ll tell you the truth, I felt bad because I wanted the shutout. We’re human. We make mistakes. Maybe that was one.”

Perez figures Blue Jay pitching coach Gil Patterson made one Tuesday when Perez stopped by the visiting clubhouse hoping to see Manager Carlos Tosca, his manager in the minors last year.

Patterson, a bit old-school about clubhouse visits, told Perez to leave, and the two had words.

He could have said, “We have a rule.’ There is a nice way,” Perez said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to get out of here.’

“I have nothing against Toronto, outside of their pitching coach. He needs to be educated. That’s no way to talk to a player.”

Patterson found he was at least a little out of step with some modern players’ habits.

“In professional baseball, if you want to say hello, you don’t do it in the locker room. Say hello on the field, or go see friends at lunch,” he said.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, Odalis, [when he came in.]”

What Patterson didn’t realize was that Mondesi, the former Dodger, had visited the Dodger clubhouse too.

He called him over to ask, and Mondesi more or less shrugged. He had spent too much time with the Dodgers not to visit, and he even hugged Tom Lasorda on the field before the game.

Perez (8-3) downplayed the revenge factor a bit after his five-hit, one-run outing over 7 1/3 innings. So did catcher Paul Lo Duca.

“I don’t know if that had anything to do with it,” Lo Duca said. “He was nails out there. What can you say; he’s been doing it all year.”

The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead in the fourth after Green hit a ground-rule double to left and Adrian Beltre drove him in with a two-out single after Eric Karros grounded out and Brian Jordan was intentionally walked.

It was a nice breakthrough for Beltre, who had only two hits in his previous 25 at-bats and was benched for a day Wednesday.

“The guy playing third base for us was like having a new player on the field; that was my take on it,” Manager Jim Tracy said.

Alex Cora, filling in at second because Mark Grudzielanek was given a day off Thursday, dropped a run-scoring hit into shallow center to drive in the second run.

Green seemingly had a chance to redeem himself for the mental error when he came up with none out in the eighth and Lo Duca on first.

The Blue Jays lifted Esteban Loaiza (3-4) after a two-run, six-hit performance over seven-plus innings to pit left-hander Scott Eyre against the left-handed Green, who hit into a double play.

Eric Karros grounded out to end the inning.

That left the game tight to the end, but maybe they owe Green one.

“It’s obvious Greenie forgot how many outs there were,” Tracy said. “He made a mental mistake, and I guarantee you no one’s feeling worse than he is.”

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*--* Series-ou s Business A trend has developed in the Dodgers’ last seven series: Dates Opponent Series Outcome Runs Scored-Allowed May 27-29 Milwaukee Won all 3 games 17-10 May Arizona Won 2 of 3 11-9 31-June 2 June 3-5 At Colorado Won 2 of 3 27-17 June 7-9 At Baltimore Won 2 of 3 12-9 June 10-12 At Tampa Bay Won 2 of 3 16-18 June 14-16 Angels Won 2 of 3 19-17 June 18-20 Toronto Won 2 of 3 8-5 Total Series Won: 7 in a row 110-85 Win-Loss: 15-6

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